Titanium
by hangetsu no taka
Summary: AU. [Medic!Younger!Naruto.] When Tsunade grudgingly returns to the village at the Hokage's call, a strange child in tow, the identity of the child shakes the village of Konoha. His name? Naruto Senju. Adopted son of Tsunade, jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune and a prodigy in his own right.
1. The Beginning

1.

**Extended Summary:** [AU. Medic!Naruto. Younger!Naruto.] The Yondaime and his wife's first child dies, a miscarriage in early childbirth. As a result, five years later, the broken-hearted couple try again. But the events that should have transpired five years earlier still occur, and before long, the new born baby, dubbed Naruto, is orphaned, and the Kyuubi implanted within him. Seeing no future for his sensei's son in Konoha after the secret is leaked, Kakashi steals him away in secret, taking him as far away as possible, to the only person he thinks can take care of the baby. His godmother, Tsunade Senju.

* * *

"Kaa-chan?"

A blonde woman hummed slightly, turning her attention to the little boy that sat on her shoulders. Surely, it would have been an odd position for anybody who knew her years before to see, but she relished in such things while she still could. Naruto was growing, at seven years old, it felt like years before that she had been brought him, before he could even talk or walk.

"What is it, Naruto-chan?" she asked, honey-brown eyes warm.

He pulled the lollipop from his mouth. Nee-chan had given it to him earlier for helping the bird with the broken wing he'd found some of the kids in the village they'd passed through crying over. "Do we have to go to Konoha?" he asked, young face scrunching. "I like it better out here!"

Tsunade, the "Legendary Sucker" of the Dansetsu no Sannin, sighed softly. In truth, she hadn't wanted to move back either, but Sarutobi had found just exactly who was in her possession, and he'd been quick to hasten her back to the village's confines. Of course, she'd taken her time, visiting her fair share of bars and casinos, but she couldn't delay much longer. They were a few hours away from the village at most, and closing fast.

"I know, gaki," she told him affectionately, patting his leg. "But we have to. Saru-sensei called us back himself."

Although they treated, and referred to each other as such, Naruto wasn't her biological child. No, despite the genjutsu that remained around her constantly, she was too old to have children now. Instead, the child was the son of two very special people she had known, and whose loss still ached in her to that day. He also contained something terrible inside of him; the very creature that had once tried to destroy the village that they were both born in.

Settled across her shoulders, she carried a very special boy. A boy who should have already been in Konoha, if not for intervention.

Naruto had come into her life in what was a whirlwind of a night. Tsunade had been on a winning streak in some odd casino along the border of Hi no Kuni and Nami no Kuni; twelve games in and no losses. Almost immediately after the second win, she'd ordered Shizune to go back to their hotel and start packing. Although outrunning her problems had never been successful in the past, there was no harm in trying.

And tried they had, but they had only been two miles out of the city when a familiar face had burst through the trees, a bundle wrapped in his arms and panic on his half-masked face. Kakashi Hatake, the prized brat of Jiraiya's genius student.

She had been less than pleased to see him, of course. Konoha shinobi weren't exactly high on her list of people she enjoyed talking to, and she'd always avoided them, lest her sensei call her back. That was also why she avoided her white haired teammate like the plague, because if anybody were to call her back, it would be him.

Still, Kakashi had told her of all that had transpired, revealing the sleeping face of the bundle in his arms—Naruto Namikaze. He'd brought her the son of the infamous Konoha no Kiiroi Senko, his sensei, the Yondaime Hokage himself. And jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Barely more than a few days old, the baby had been threatened more times than Kakashi dared relay to her. An attempted assassination had been the last straw, and Kakashi himself had kidnapped him.

He'd struggled over where to take the boy, before he found the wanted posters posted all over a town along the border, plastered with her face—her debt collectors had stepped it up, apparently. Regardless, he'd made a snap decision then. Rather than abandon Naruto somewhere, he'd taken him to her. She was the one person he could think of that could keep the baby safe from all sides. But more importantly, she was his godmother.

Initially, she'd been shocked to earn that title. She hadn't known Minato that well, aside from him being Jiraiya's brat. But Kushina she had been close with, for a time. She could still remember when she first met her, Kushina Uzumaki, a member of her grandmother's clan, and a former resident of Uzu itself. A distant relative of Tsunade.

For the longest time, she'd been confused over the constant visits to her obaa-san. She'd long questioned her grandmother over it, but Mito was always a tight lipped woman, and had just smiled and ruffled her granddaughter's hair, saying that she'd find out one day. It wasn't until the day of Mito Senju death that she truly understood. Kushina was to take her place. To be the new host.

After all the days Kushina spent at the Senju compound, the two of them had developed a friendship, and the rest had been history. The two of them had respected each other, and she'd even taught Kushina a thing or two, before she'd left the village.

As Kakashi passed her the small bundle of cloth to inspect, she looked upon the infant's face, at the features she could identify as the red haired Uzumaki's and the ex-Hokage's respectively. Apparently, Kushina had never forgotten her, she thought, and she hadn't known whether to curse that or to be grateful. She'd since settled for something in between. The moment she looked upon that face, as eyelids sleepily slid open to reveal bright blue and a smile curled on baby Naruto's lips, she'd been powerless to refuse.

She'd taken Naruto from Kakashi that day, and she was proud to say that she'd never looked back since then.

"Tsunade-sama?"

Broken out of her reflections, Tsunade looked at her young apprentice. Shizune was looking at her, frowning slightly.

"What is it, Shizune?"

She pointed into the distance, at an all too familiar figure.

Tsunade followed her student's finger and bit out a harsh curse, causing Naruto to chastize her. She just cursed louder. Of course, of all the people Sarutobi would send out to greet her (or rather, ensure she actually came back), it would have to be the bane of her existence himself.

Naruto tilted his head, surveying the white haired man settled atop an orange-black toad. He looked cool, he thought personally. And despite his mother's irritation at seeing him, that meant that she knew him well enough to be irritated by his presence. And his mother only knew the strongest, coolest people after all. He beamed at the thought. Maybe this man was someone who could teach him a couple of jutsu.

"Who's that, kaa-san?"

"That, Naruto-chan, is a baka," she said, lifting him off her shoulders so that he could walk by himself. "He's the pervert your kaa-san told you about, you remember?"

Naruto's face instantly took on an expression of horror, looking up at his mother, his hope crushed. "Ero-baka?" he asked, narrowing his eyes on the older male settled on the toad. He had an ingrained hatred of perverts, due to growing up with two extremely strong, independent, opinionated women. But his kaa-san had told him that this pervert, specifically, was the worst of them all. Tsunade had done her very best to teach him that her teammate was to be avoided, or alternatively, beaten into a pulp.

Jiraiya greeted them as they approached. "Hey, Tsu—"

He was cut off by Naruto, who threw his arm out, his nose scrunched. "What do you want, Ero-baka?"

"—huh?"

Tsunade beamed. She'd taught her son well.


	2. The Return

**Note: **I'd like to thank all the people that reviewed, favorited and otherwise supported my story. It means a lot to me. This is my first story, so all your feedback is appreciated, and goes a long way towards making this story better. On a side note, each of my chapters are going to be relatively short but sweet. This is out of personal preference, and to ensure faster updates.

* * *

2.

* * *

Scrawling his signature across another bit of paper, Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a sigh, leaning back in his chair. His aching bones cracked as he stretched out, warding away the small pains and cramps of another day full of office work.

Being Hokage was not an experience he'd trade for anything, it was something he truly cherished, but sometimes he wondered if he wasn't simply too old for the position. His old bones were not as tough as they used to be, he grew tired easily, and the aches were prominent most days. Sometimes, he wondered what his life would have been like if his successor had not died. Perhaps he'd still be joyously enjoying his retirement; at home smoking his pipe all day, playing with Konohamaru and drinking his favorite tea.

Ah, Minato. He still remembered the day he first met him, his successor-to-be. A trip to the Academy, back during his previous tenure as Hokage, had brought the then child to his attention.

Eight years old, and Minato Namikaze had been every bit the genius he had been heralded as. Born in the midst of war, he and his classmates had the burden of having to grow up far too fast in order to serve their village. But even for the times, he had been mature beyond his age. Despite the bright smile and pleasant attitude, he had a keen intelligence in his eyes, and as he talked, he talked with a maturity that did not match his age.

At first, all he'd hoped to gain out of visiting the Academy that day was to lift the morale of the students a little with an empowering speech or two. He'd never expected to find such a unique genius. Of course he'd heard the whispers of a supposedly brilliant child being enrolled in the Academy, but he'd been far too preoccupied with the war effort to do much about it. But the day he visited, he learned one thing. A lesson that would be taught to him thrice over at Minato's hands. He would always live up to, if not exceed, the rumors that followed him.

From that day forward, he'd kept one eye trained on the boy, observing from a distance. And when little Minato graduated the Academy, ten years of age, he'd been quick to call in a few favors. Jiraiya was not exactly what one would consider a very good teacher, but he knew that his student held the patience, drive and the ability to teach. It was just a matter of finding the right student. And someone like Minato was the perfect guinea pig for that test.

As it turned out, he had been right. Under Jiraiya's tutelage, he'd quickly risen through the ranks, making a name for himself; not just a genius of intellect, but a genius of the more important kind, hard work. Genin at ten, chunin at twelve and jounin and fourteen, Minato had flown above and beyond his classmates. But it was in the war that he truly shone. As he grew, so did his skills, and they had never stopped growing. First came the creation of the Rasengan, and then the infamous Hiraishin, and after that, the war had turned in their favor. He had almost single-handedly decimated Iwa, and had been issued in the bingo book as an S-Rank shinobi, with flee on sight status. A status few, bar himself, had ever achieved.

And where before Hiruzen had been thinking of Orochimaru to take over his position, his thoughts had instead turned to Minato. Both were geniuses, but Minato had something unique about him. Where Orochimaru was isolated and uncaring, Minato was friendly and polite. Where Orochimaru was a genius in skill and intellect, Minato appeared a genius in all things. And where Orochimaru had little love for anything, Minato's love for the village eclipsed anything he had seen before. And so the choice was clear.

He had been so distraught when Minato had died, when he had sacrificed himself for the village. And it was not simply because he was forced out of retirement, to retake the mantle of Hokage in the wake of his chosen's death. No, sorrow had filled him, for he had loved Minato like a son in a way. He'd buried one son already, it killed him to have to bury another.

Still, a piece of Minato had survived, lived on. He had been filled with hope, with joy, in the face of baby Naruto; jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, the son of two of the greatest shinobi Konoha had ever had, and their village's future. Equal halves Minato and Kushina, his fiery haired, fiery tempered wife. Naruto had been a symbol of their sacrifice, and that out of all bad things, good things came in equal measure.

It was that hope that had driven him, along with Minato's last wishes, to commit his greatest regret. He had declared his secret to the village that night, Naruto in his arms and a proud smile on his face. He had spoken of how he was their savior, a hero, the one who kept the Kyuubi at bay. He spoke of the Yondaime's sacrifice, and how he wished for the child to be a hero. The calls for his death had landed on his doorstep that very night.

He should have known it wouldn't work out, but he'd always been called an idealist fool.

The weeks that had followed had been hard, trying, and eye opening for him. On one side, he and those that knew the truth of Naruto's lineage, on the other, everyone else. Among the calls for death, there were those whose anger and sadness took over, and whom believed that killing the host of the fox was the only way to get revenge.

He'd had to defend Naruto from a crazed chunin with a kunai himself, and a jounin shortly after. Following that, he'd posted an armed guard on the boy at all times. ANBU he knew to be loyal to the Yondaime, and sympathetic to Naruto himself. Heading that group had been Kakashi, Minato's very own student, and one of those he could trust.

To that day, he wasn't sure if that trust was misplaced or not, for it had been Kakashi himself that had taken a step he both resented and respected. Where Sarutobi had fought to protect him with words and defense, Kakashi had _acted. _

A few weeks after he was born, Hiruzen walked into the nursery he had set up nearby his office, and had found the entire team of ANBU unconscious. Bar one missing soul. Kakashi Hatake himself. And with him, little Naruto had disappeared too.

Initially, he'd feared the worst. Despite the faith he had in Kakashi, he'd assumed they'd been killed or taken, and he'd dispatched half of the ANBU into the forests and cities of Hi no Kuni in search of the boy, leaving the remaining half to comb Konoha itself. And then he'd waited, hoped that they would turn up again. But they didn't.

A week passed, then two, and he had reached the end of his patience when even Jiraiya himself returned without results. And then, on the eve of the third week, Kakashi had reappeared. He'd been furious at the story he presented, tearing into the young man and threatening him. But even under the threat of being demoted to genin and being killed by the Sandaime himself, Kakashi had held firm. He refused to say where or with who Naruto was, but he just said he was safe. Which wasn't enough for Sarutobi.

Demoting Kakashi to a simple jounin, he had renewed his efforts to search for Naruto, but nothing. No trace ever turned up, not for many years, and for the longest time, he'd thought his successor's son dead. But information did appear, almost eight years after he'd lost him. He had turned up, much to his disbelief, with the one person he never would have thought to check. Tsunade, his old student, and the least motherly woman he'd ever seen.

"Hokage-sama?"

Turning his mind away from thoughts of his student and his long missing charge, he turned to regard the woman poking her head through the door. She was pretty, with soft brown hair, pale skin and an eternally warm smile. "Ah, what is it, Nozomi-san?"

"Jiraiya-sama and Tsu—" she broke off with a wince as a loud crack echoed through the room, distinctly the sound of something breaking. A loud voice could be heard shouting from the hallway, something about perverts and castration, a threat that made him wince. Tsunade was home, it seemed. "Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama are here to see you."

Despite himself, Hiruzen smiled. "Send them in."

Almost immediately after, Tsunade came stomping into the room, bristling. Her hand tight around the collar of his shirt, Jiraiya was dragged in behind her, before he was promptly thrown in a heap in front of Hiruzen's desk. He couldn't help but shake his head at that. It seemed some things never changed, his students' attitude towards each other being one thing. It almost felt like it used to, despite the vast differences that had dragged them apart of the years.

"Welcome home, Tsunade-chan."

Tsunade looked at her old sensei, and her look was too much like a glare for Hiruzen to be entirely comfortable. Of course, he knew that his student would have been far from happy being pulled out of her travels to come back to a place she swore never to return to, especially under threat, but he had to. He had no choice. Returning Naruto to his village had been important. And Sarutobi had been aching to see him for years.

"Sensei," the says by way of greeting, and although her tone isn't glacial, its far from pleased. "What do you want?"

At the word us, his vision shifted over the three across from him. There was his student, looking all together the same as he always remembered her, although with a different air about her (was there something softer about Tsunade?). There was Shizune, all grown up, but just as polite and quiet as she was as a child. And finally, eclipsed between the two women he was with, there stood a little blonde boy. Right away, just looking into those eyes, he knew it was Naruto.

The boy looked very much like his father. From the distinctive shape of his jaw, to the unruly spikes of hair, to the deep blue of his eyes. But the way he held himself, the confidence and the look on his face, was very much Kushina. He looks so much like his parents, it almost hurts. He almost smiled, however, because Tsunade's own influence is evident in the boy; from the way he smiled, to the way he dressed.

He looked pointedly at Naruto, eyes settling on Tsunade after a moment.

"You know what, Tsunade."

The blonde woman seemed to almost snarl, but the small hand that slipped into her own seemed to calm her. "We were all happier away from here."

He understood that, knew that this was not something Tsunade would forgive easily. Originally, he'd intended to let her return of her own will, but times had changed, and he'd had no choice. The council had been demanding once news of the discovery had spread, and he himself had recognized the need to bring the boy back into the village. If word reached the other villages that the jinchuuriki had been found, running free through the shinobi nations, his capture would be inevitable.

Not only that, but he'd heard whispers from Jiraiya, whispers that concerned him greatly. Rumors outside of Konoha spoke of a group formed and operating in secret, a group who donned the title of Akatsuki, and whose ultimate goal remained undetermined. However, it had been said that they sought out the bijuu and their hosts, and that was not something that boded well. Nobody knew what they would do with them, but such terrible power could not fall to any single group. The balance of the nations had to remain equal, the delicate peace undisturbed. And Akatsuki threatened that with their very existence.

So the decision had been made. Naruto would be brought to the village. He would be trained to protect himself, so that the day that the group finally sought him out, he would be prepared. Tsunade could say what she wanted, but he knew he was making the right decision.

"Be that as it may," he said evenly, looking into the incensed honey eyes of his only female student. "Naruto needs somewhere stable."

Now that did provoke anger out of Tsunade, and her fist slammed heavily down on his desk, her hit just as heavy as it had always been. A sharp crack was heard, before the desk fell completely in half, scattering the piles of carefully sorted paperwork, much to his annoyance. If he had been a lesser man, he would have jumped or quivered at the pure show of strength. But he was no normal man, he was the Hokage, and Tsunade was another of those under his command. His student did not scare him.

"Shizune," Tsunade called dangerously, eyes narrowed. "Take Naruto-chan outside."

Despite the protests Naruto wanted to show at being dragged out of the room when his kaa-chan was about to get into a fight, he was quickly shushed by Shizune's tense look. He didn't like the look she wore, somewhere between concern and fear. For his kaa-chan, or the old man, he wasn't sure. So, holding his tongue, he trailed out after her, leaving his mother behind with one last look.

As soon as he was gone, Tsunade was upon them both, looking ready to go on a rampage. Her temper was notoriously short, as was her patience, and her tirades had always been infamously destructive. She'd been known to tear down buildings, destroy training grounds and generally terrify everybody who had the poor fortune of running into her.

Faced with her wrath, both men left occupying the room had the presence of mind to look a little nervous. Being a 'mother' had softened her some, sure, but it had also given birth to the dangerous instinct all women had. The wish to protect their children at all cost.

"You don't know what my son needs, you old coot!" Tsunade shouted, eyes wild. "You don't even _know _him!"

And that did hurt, Hiruzen reflected. In another life, he would have been Naruto's guardian, his protector. He would have looked after Naruto, just as he had his own grandchildren. But it was not to be. Perhaps they could have that relationship now, but he wouldn't know where to begin. Naruto didn't know him now, and he wondered what stories of him Tsunade had fed the child. What stories of the village she had fed him.

Jiraiya stepped to his defense then, face serious. "We know he's in danger. And Konoha's the only thing that can protect him."

A scoff. "Please, don't kid yourself," she growled, memories of all those she'd lost flashing in front of her eyes. "Since when has Konoha been able to protect _anything_. I can do a better job of protecting Naruto myself."

"Not from this."

At Sarutobi's input, Tsunade turned. "And pray tell, sensei," she drawled venomously, "what exactly is so dangerous that you'd drag my son and I back here just to '_protect' _us?"

The Hokage sighed and straightened, his old bones cracking once more.

This was going to be a long story, and Tsunade wasn't going to like a single bit of it.

* * *

It was in the waiting room of the Hokage Tower that Naruto found himself, twiddling his thumbs together, his mind dwelling on the ranting and raving that was sure to be going on beyond the door. On pure instinct alone (fueled by no small amount of curiosity), he gathered the largest amount of chakra he possibly could undetected. Smiling as he easily secured the correct amount, he expelled it from his body in a smooth circle, a field that swelled inside the room, pushing beyond the wooden walls of the tower.

Sensitive to chakra by nature, he'd found it easy to adapt to using the technique, and he used it more often than he didn't. Kaa-san said it would help his chakra control, and it never hurt to be aware of his surroundings. As an aspiring medic-nin like his mother and his surrogate sister, despite his wishes to be a field medic, he knew that combat was never supposed to be a medic's prerogative. Rather, evasion and defense were supposed to be how they operated, and having a field that alerted him to enemies _and _potential attacks was not something to shake a fist at.

It was a technique he'd picked up in Kumo a year or two earlier. They'd left him at the house of his mother's old friend, Satsu-sensei, for the day while they went off to gamble. Well, Tsunade to gamble, and Shizune to keep an eye on her.

As he'd found, Satsu-sensei had been a kunoichi in the past, before she'd fallen pregnant and succumbed to the life of a housewife. A powerful sensor, she'd been fierce on the battlefield and a brilliant jounin. She had explained to him just how the technique worked over lunch that afternoon, as they both awaited his family's return. After walking in on him trying to implement it not ten minutes later, she'd shaken her head, ruffled his hair and had corrected his mistakes.

They'd stayed in Kumo for just over a week, enough for her to pass the basics on to him, and for his mother to rack up her fair share of debts with a million and one different casinos. As they'd left, he'd promised Satsu-sensei that he would master it, no matter how many days it took. It had taken over two months to learn, but he'd done it. He'd made Satsu-sensei proud.

Using the technique she had taught him, he felt for his mother's chakra signature, squinting as he found it. It was fluctuating rapidly, wildly, with the heat of her anger. That was something he'd learnt. You could judge how a person was feeling by the way their chakra acted. And in his mother, he felt raw fury.

"Kaa-san's angry," Naruto mentioned.

At his side, Shizune sighed. Their mentor was a fierce woman, with a temper a mile wide. "You know what Tsunade-sama's like," she shook her head, remembering the millions of times she'd witnessed said temper. "Remember the time in Chai no Kuni? With the debt collectors?"

Naruto did remember, in fact. He may have only been three at the time, but one did not easily forget the sight of a blonde haired Sannin going on a rampage, pulverizing over a dozen debt collectors, taking them down with only one chakra-enhanced fist. They had tried to take him to use as leverage to get her to pay back all she owed. That had been one of the very first times he'd witnessed her incredible strength, and he'd been obsessed with learning it too after that.

He wanted to be just like his kaa-san, he'd declared quite loudly once he was safely back in his family's arms. Immediately after Tsunade caught wind of that, she'd begun his training. As a result of being the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, his chakra control had initially been terrible, and it had been a long road to get it to where it was now.

Naruto had practiced endlessly, night after night, despite his mother's warnings not to over do it. He had always been stubborn, she'd griped quite loudly, quite often. Channeling that into his learning, he had refused to give up until his chakra control was as close to perfect as it could be. It had taken a small eternity and endless amounts of frustration, but every time his mother said just how well he was doing, the warmth and pride in his chest made it all worth it.

He'd learned a lot since he'd begun his training, and although it was hard, his mother and sister had seemingly endless patience when it came to him, and answered all his questions when he asked them. Naruto considered himself to be proficient in iryojutsu, nowhere near as good as Tsunade or Shizune, but his mother often said he was better than most people three times his age.

A spike of chakra from his mother conveyed more than Naruto wanted to ever feel from her. Grief, horror, sadness, shock. In a split second, he felt it all flow through him, resounding as if it was his own. Mere moments after, it was gone. Everything. His mother had suppressed her chakra signature.

In the shock of feeling his mother's emotions for that moment, he snapped the invisible bubble back to him, hand digging into the chair. Alarmed, he turned to Shizune, who was looking at him with worry.

"Hey, nee-chan?"

"Hm?"

Naruto looked at his surrogate sister. "What do you think they want from me?"

He wasn't deluded, he knew they were talking about him. From what he'd heard in the room, he knew it was definitely about him, and from the tone his mother's chakra had taken before it had disappeared, he knew it was obviously important. And upsetting.

"I don't know, Naruto-chan," Shizune stated, and something odd seemed to cloud her features. "I really don't know."

His brow furrowing, the seven-bordering-eight year old reached into the pouch bound to his shorts by a set of bandages. Extracting a foil-wrapped, apple flavored piece of candy—the closest he got to enjoying most fruit—and popped it into his mouth. Relieving himself of his seriousness for the moment, he decided it wasn't too much of his business.

For the moment, he'd just focus on trying to coax the man with the weird mask hidden in the corner to give him more candy. He had faith in his ability to persuade the toughest of men to do his bidding. Puppy dog eyes were his forte, after all.


	3. Assignment

**Note:** Forgive the lateness of this chapter, I've been spending my time with my family for Christmas. That being said, I hope you all had a good one. In this chapter, it will be continuing on from the last.

* * *

3.

* * *

When Naruto was finally called back into the Hokage's office, his nee-san by his side, he was understandably apprehensive. Despite his resolution not to get too involved or to think too much over what was going on, the moment he stepped foot in the room, he could taste the tension. It was in the crease of his mother's brow, the clenching of Ero-baka's fist, and the lines that seemed to have multiplied across the Hokage's face.

Body language was a medic-nin art, and Naruto was well versed in its application. Quite often, his kaa-chan dragged him out into the streets of the villages they passed through, pointing to a random person walking the street, and asked him what they were thinking or feeling.

In an effort to alleviate the tension that had settled in the room in his absence, Naruto bounced in, planting a wide smile on his face. It wasn't exactly forced, either. He was always overjoyed to see his kaa-chan, no matter the circumstances. In some ways, she was like the light in his life. He didn't know much about his life before he had been brought to her, he was that young, but he knew Tsunade had been like a shinobi with a shining kunai to him.

Slipping his hand into Tsunade's as he bounced up, he squinted up at her, twitching his lollipop from one side of his mouth to the other.

"Kaa-chan?"

Tsunade looked at him, honey eyes warm. "What is it, Naru-chan?"

He paused, looking into the interested eyes of the Hokage and Ero-baka for a moment. He quickly turned his attention back to his adopted mother, expression honestly curious. "Are we going to stay here?"

At the question, Tsunade seemed to sag a bit. The conversation with her old sensei and her teammate had raged for a long time, and she still hadn't had the time to properly absorb all that she had learned. What she did know, however, was that she would keep Naruto safe at any cost, and if that cost was her rather reluctant return to Konoha, then so be it. It was a mother's duty to sacrifice all she had for her son, after all.

Reaching out, she ruffled his hair, smiling at him reassuringly. She was under no illusion that he needed it, but it was more to reassure herself. Living in Konoha would be a change, of course. They had all grown used to their own almost nomadic ways, and it was a lifestyle they enjoyed. It would take some adjusting, and some sacrifice, to make it work. But they would have to, that much she knew.

As grudging as it was, she had to admit her son was safest here. She had taught him what she could, but now it was time for him to really, truly learn. For the sake of his own safety.

"Yeah, Naruto-chan," she told him, sleighting a look at Jiraiya and her own sensei. "We're staying here."

A long moment passed, and a thoughtful visage took over Naruto's face.

"Okay," he stated simply.

"Okay?" Tsunade inquired.

He nodded, more certain. "Okay."

A bright smile blossomed across Tsunade's face. She was under no delusions about her adopted son. He was a bright boy, insanely so. In the odd glimpses of maturity on his young face, in the knowing smiles that crossed his face and the way his eyes shone, she saw it. It was a spark, bright, intelligent. And in those moments, she had no doubt that he would surpass his father in all ways.

Minato had been handsome, smart, and above all, kind. And Naruto was every bit his father's son.

Shifting slightly in his chair, Hiruzen coughed slightly to rid the room of the oddly happy silence that had fallen upon it. As all eyes shot to him, he smiled warmly, his own only fixed on Naruto. He took in every little detail, from the way his fingers twitched nervously to the way he scratched at the back of his neck. Every little motion was so familiar, and yet so unexpected, it was eye opening.

But more eye opening, was just how much the boy had grown. Last time he had seen him, Naruto had fit perfectly in his arms. Now, he stood tall for someone so young, just as his grandson Konohamaru was. And not all of that was height. Something in his eyes gave him a _presence. _He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was that same elusive quality that had drawn him to Minato.

"You've grown, Naruto," he said, repeating his thoughts. "The last time I saw you, you were only a baby."

Tsunade snorted, although it looked like anger still existed in her somewhere. "He's _still _a baby."

"Kaa-san!" Naruto whined childishly, pausing in his unwrapping of yet another piece of candy. However, despite his whining, there was a hint of contentment, of happiness, in the shine of his eyes.

An amused hand covering her mouth, Shizune let out a quiet laugh.

Almost immediately, Naruto rounded on her, eyes betrayed. "Nee-san!"

The laughter that came from the Hokage's office was heard all around Konoha that day.

* * *

Once the laughter stopped, the stories came. Nostalgic tales from years passed, some happy, some sad, and some just so _funny _that the laughter started all over again. The conversations raged for hours, until the afternoon light dwindled into the slowly twinkling sky of evening and all the village slumbered for the night. And so too does the youngest of their company, little Naruto asleep, his head in his mother's lap, a smile on his young face. None of them have the heart to wake him, and so it falls to Shizune to take him to their new (_old?_) home at the Senju estate.

When night fell, and the dark haired woman was gone, the young boy whisked away with her, all was quiet. For a long moment, the Hokage's office dwelled in silence, warm and content. And then it quickly turned to conversation once more.

"He's a bright boy."

It was Jiraiya who broke the silence.

Tsunade looked at him, eyes unreadable. "He is," she said, before adding, "just like his father."

The reminder of just who had contributed to the life of the boy made them all sigh wistfully for a moment. Jiraiya's eyes were the saddest however, memories of his smartest, strongest, most talented student rose fresh in his mind. Minato's son had turned out just like he had, even without his influence. And he didn't know how to feel about that.

"He still just needs to be trained," Hiruzen cut in then, snapping them out of their memories. "Have you taught him much, Tsunade?"

The honey-eyed woman sat back in her chair at that. Naruto was every bit the prodigy she understood that Minato had been, and she didn't envy Jiraiya one bit for having to teach one. Quite frankly, it was _exhausting _at times, especially when at the end of the day that little genius was also your child. That being said, Naruto picked up techniques faster than she could ever imagine in her wildest dreams, and his chakra capacity was no laughing matter, as was his stamina. She'd spent years chasing him around, and unsticking him from convenient ceiling hiding spots to think otherwise.

"I've been training the brat in iryōjutsu for a while now, he's good at it too. Wants to be a medic," she stated, thinking back on his skills. He had picked up a lot of habits and interests from her, but she had never been prouder than when he had taken an interest in Iryōjutsu. It had almost been worth the struggle they'd gone through (for almost two years, she reminded herself) to tame his wild chakra control. "He's too young to learn proper taijutsu, so I've been teaching him _my _way."

Both of the men gulped at that. It was well known just what Tsunade's taijutsu was like.

Destructive, to put it simply.

"He knows a bit about poisons from Shizune, too," she mentioned, thinking. "I taught him a couple of ninjutsu too. The brat took to them like a fish. He's got enormous reserves, that kid. I'm not too sure if that was Kyuubi's doing or Kushina's though. Other than that, he's passable with kunai and shuriken, but much bettter with senbon. He's got a thing for traps, too. I think it's something to do with his love of pranks."

Blinking at how much their student/teammate's son had learned, the two of them would have been left with hanging jaws if it weren't _just like _a Namikaze and Uzumaki to pick up on things so quickly. It was in his genes, after all.

"He really does take after his parents," Jiraiya mourned, much to their agreement. "_Too _much. I don't know if this village is built to handle another prodigy. I mean, look at that Uchiha kid. May as well just give the brat a promotion to Chunin now."

Tsunade shook her head. "No."

"Not that I don't agree with you, Tsunade," Sarutobi spoke up, looking at them both. "But why not?"

She shrugged. "I want to teach him the value of hard work. If he's going to be a shinobi, he's going to have to work his way to the top, starting with Genin," she stated simply, but with conviction. "Just because he's a special little brat, doesn't mean he's going to get any short cuts. Besides, he do with some interaction with people closer to his age."

Both of them nodded at that reasoning.

"You do know the current batch of Genin are a couple of years older than him anyway, right?" Sarutobi mentioned. "And the only available team? Well, I'm not too sure that they'll take kindly to someone _young _joining them."

"Bah," Tsunade waved him off, unconcerned. "Naruto will be fine, he's a mature little brat."

Sarutobi shrugged, reaching for a form that was left sitting on his desk, intent on adding the new shinobi to the roster. Originally, he'd been planning on having Naruto installed in the Academy first thing, but he should have known Tsunade would have taught her son a few things. Oh well, it would fix the problem of Kakashi's missing Genin quite nicely.

Signing his name off on the paper, he placed it in the finished pile, and reached into his desk. Extracting a black hitai-ate, he threw it to Tsunade, who caught it with ease. It would be a little bit for Naruto, as most were made to fit those of higher age, but he'd have to make due. There would be no point in getting him a small one, he'd just grow into the one he had.

"Alright, so it's settled," he announced. "Naruto will join Team 7 under Kakashi Hatake, alongside Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno as their official new team member as of tomorrow afternoon."

Across the room, Jiraiya grinned. "May Kami have mercy on his soul."

Even Tsunade couldn't help but smirk.

This would get the brat back for all the pranks he'd pulled on her over the years. He would hate her come the next evening, but that would teach him to try and slip purple hair dye into her shampoo. She was a Sannin, as if she would fall for such a pathetic trick.

No, that had fallen to Shizune.


End file.
